April forecast to go out warm and dry; hazardous marine conditions continue

Wednesday

Sep 14, 2016 at 12:01 AMSep 14, 2016 at 6:46 PM

The end-of-month forecast shows wet conditions across most of the country — with the exception of the Southeast. (Credit: NOAA/ CPC)

After a cool and breezy week, April is expected to end warm and dry, according to the latest forecast from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

A few showers are forecast to dampen the upcoming weekend in Palm Beach, but nothing as dramatic as last Friday’s severe thunderstorms, which packed high winds and hail.

Weather Underground is predicting a little more than a tenth of an inch of rain Friday and Saturday, after which warmer and drier weather should move in. AccuWeather is forecasting highs in the mid- to upper-80s for the final week of the month.

(Credit: NWS-Miami)

Meanwhile, gusty northeast winds will keep a high surf advisory in place through today, and rip current risks remain high through at least mid-week, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.

Temperatures this week are expected to remain ultra-pleasant for April, though, with forecast highs in Palm Beach in the mid- to upper-70s and lows around 70.

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TROPICS TALK: Thirteen years ago today, a non-tropical low formed southwest of Bermuda and began spinning north. With convection building, the National Hurricane Center identified the system as Subtropical Storm Ana two days later, and the storm transitioned to Tropical Storm Ana on April 21.

Tropical Storm Ana, which began as a subtropical system, remains the only tropical storm to form in April. (Credit: NOAA)

It remains the only tropical storm on record to form in April in the Atlantic.

Ana battered Bermuda for two days, dropping 2.63 inches of rain before eventually scooting off to the northeast with a peak wind speed of 60 mph.

Swells generated by Ana impacted Florida’s East Coast and caused a boat to capsize in the Jupiter Inlet, drowning two people.

A subtropical storm formed on April 21, 1992 near Bermuda, but it was unnamed and never graduated to tropical storm status. After two other tropical depressions in June and July that year, the first named storm became Tropical Storm Andrew — later Category 5 Hurricane Andrew — on Aug. 17.

PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF FROGS: A National Weather Service meteorologist who went out to check the rain gauge this morning in Melbourne found a few stowaways had hopped into the bucket — three frogs.

The amphibians made a big splash on the NWS-Melbourne Facebook page today.

The meteorologist, Tony Cristaldi, declared that it had been a “Three Frog Night” at the National Weather Service office.